Around the corner from the city's lone street, a group of high school students are sitting on the curb and enjoying bag lunches. One kid has a chocolate pudding cup that catches my eye. Mm, pudding. What are these kids doing here, anyway? Playing hooky en masse? Unstructured field trip? Big skinny jeans sale in Metropolis? The hapless teen from earlier sits among them, although not really with them. He pops the top on his soda, which promptly sprays all over his face. Lois is at a nearby coffee cart and sees the whole thing. As she watches, a pretty girl offers the kid a fresh can of soda. "Here, Jaime," she says with a smile. He looks up at her with surprise and gratitude. He opens the can and gets sprayed in the face all over again. The other teens laugh, including the girl who just moments ago seemed so generous. "Sorry, I forgot I dropped it," she says and rejoins her cackling friends. As he walks across the street to throw away the can, Lois sees the "kick me" sign stuck to the back of his shirt and takes it off. She tells him to stand up for himself. "Don't slouch, talk with confidence and stop being so shy," is her advice. Spoken like a girl who's never been shy or awkward. "Now, you go back over there and you tell them you're mad as hell and you're not going to take it anymore." Lady, this is high school bullying, not Network. Encouraged by Lois, he heads back to tell off his tormentors, but his nerve drains away as they get up and walk away. He looks utterly defeated. Lois looks like she's about to cry. Clearly the show wants us to make the connection that she's thinking of Clark's teen years. Except Clark's teen years weren't like that. He was fairly well-regarded by everyone besides maybe Lana's boyfriend. Hell, he was voted Homecoming King just earlier this season.